Concept Behind ER Texting Service

April 29, 2010 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: ER Reviews 

Many People still aren’t familiar with the new phenomenon that has hit ER Waiting Rooms. A new service has been presented to hospitals all over the United States that allows patients to text their zip code to 4ER411 and get local (participating) hospital er wait times. The service is absolutely free to those who text in their zip code. The image shown depicts how the new system works:

Emergency Planning Via Texting

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Why Publish Emergency Room wait times?

April 13, 2010 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: ER Facts 

written by Jennifer Reynolds

Here are 4 facts on why hospitals are increasingly marketing their ER wait times via text and other advertising vehicles. If you have an ED to promote, the evidence is overwhelmingly positive.

Patient Satisfaction When patients know your emergency room wait time, their expectations are set and experience enhanced. Knowing what to expect translates into higher level of patient satisfaction.

Transparency Whether its quality scores, infection rates or provider comparisons consumers trust what they can see .  Marketing your emergency room performance aligns with what consumers desire and are currently demanding.

Emergency Department Performance By being transparent, your ED team will be more motivated to drive performance, quality and patient satisfaction.  Consumer awareness motivates ED team members to take deeper ownership of their services and instills a greater sense of pride.  Published times can also support other benchmarks and metrics already in place.

Hospital Image Publishing emergency room wait times for consumers to instantly retrieve with a single text, reflects your being in touch with your communities.  Reaching out to your markets and offering instantaneous information via a single text reinforces your position as a market leader.           Your hospital will be seen as “informed and connected”.

There you have it. And we haven’t even covered the costs, which are minimal. You can usually promote your hospital’s live ER wait times for under the cost of that 1 newspaper ad that less and less people are reading every day. Catch the tech wave or get washed away. Some healthy advice!

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